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October 19, 2016

Tirunelveli Halwa Recipe - Wheat Flour/Godhumai Halwa - Easy Version

My mom & dad are basically from Tirunelveli, Tamil nadu but settled in Salem. But all our relatives are in & around Tirunelveli. Right from my childhood, we used to travel there at least once in 6 months to my thatha aachi’s house. Most of my summer vacations are spent there. My thatha used to buy the most popular Iruttukadai Halwa and Oma podi from Shanthi sweets for teatime without fail. Having tasted this Halwa for N number of times, I have never imagined myself trying it at home. In 2010, I watched few video recipes and tried Tirunelveli halwa recipe for the first time.Though it tasted the same like TVL halwa, I used food color to bring its brown color. At that time, I was not aware of certain tips and tricks to make a perfect Tirunelveli halwa without adding food color. And now after seeing so many websites and video recipes, I got to know its technique. So I was wanted to make it again and post it in my blog for this Diwali. Authentic Tirunelveli halwa calls for soaking and grinding Samba Godhumai ( Whole wheat grains), extracting the milk ( Godhumai paal) and fermenting it overnight. I followed this method for my earlier recipe. But this time, I simplified its procedure by combining the methods of easy wheat flour halwa recipe in Jeyashri's blog&traditional Tirunelveli halwa recipe from Dosa to pizza youtube video recipe. I altered the quantity of ingredients and changed the procedure accordingly. I made it using instant wheat flour( Godhumai maavu), used oil + Ghee to bring its texture and added caramelized sugar to bring its color naturally. Wow, You won’t believe me, it came out very close to original Tirunelveli halwa in both color & texture. There is no compromise in taste with the authentic halwa. Generally Thirunelveli halwa is not made into pieces.So you don’t need to look for any sugar syrup consistency. This halwa itself will show you the correct stage to remove it. So beginners can also dare to attempt this recipe at home. But the most important thing you need is “PATIENCE”. Yes, This halwa takes around one hour for preparation but the end result will make you forget all the pain and get credits from your family members for sure. I got tempted by the pictures of Halwa kadai online website and clicked my halwa in a leaf. I am very happy to see the ghee dripping hot halwa in the picture as I wished. So here you go, the world famous Tirunelveli halwa recipe in an easy way with step by step photos and a detailed video tutorial just for you all.
If you are looking to try the traditional method, do check this post!

** The quantity of oil & ghee mentioned is approximate. This halwa may take more or less. Don’t worry for adding more because we are going to collect all the fat at the end !

METHOD

Take 1 cup of wheat flour, add water little by little and knead a dough like chapathi dough. Let it be thick and no need to use oil or ghee while making the dough. Place the dough in a big bowl and add 5 cups of water to it.Let it soak for 2-4 hours.

After 2 hours, take the dough with milk and mix it well with your hands. Dough dissolves in water and you will get white colored milk.Strain the milk through a cloth strainer and squeeze the fiber like part that comes from the wheat dough. Do not add more water.Use the soaked water to extract the milk. After taking all the milk, discard the residue.Set the milk aside. In a bowl, melt the required ghee and mix with oil. Set aside.

In a wide, heavy bottomed kadai ( Non-stick kadai) , heat 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the cashews. After it turns golden brown, add the wheat milk.No need to remove the roasted cashews. Start stirring. Initially the mixture looks very watery. But If you keep stirring for 15 minutes, it becomes slightly thick. Keep the flame medium and stir it well. If you want, you can keep the flame high to hasten this process. But stay nearby because it will burn at the bottom very soon. After it looks thick like porridge, add 2 (2.25 cups for more sweetness, I used 2.25) cups of sugar and keep mixing. Keep the flame very low. Now you have to caramelize the sugar in the next step.

Sugar Caramelization: In another gas burner, keep a small kadai and add 1 tbsp ghee. After its melted, add 1/4 cup of sugar. Mix well and caramelize it. Do the entire process in low flame because if the sugar is over caramelized, it turns bitter in taste and spoils the taste of halwa. So please be careful.

Sugar will melt in ghee and its color changes to golden brown.Switch off the flame immediately and mix well in the heat.Please refer the video for clear understanding. Add the caramelized sugar to the halwa. It may splutter, so be careful while pouring it.

Again start mixing the halwa. Keep the flame medium. After the caramelized sugar is mixed well, color of the halwa will be changed to light brown.Check the taste and add more sugar if needed at this stage itself. Then add 1tbsp of melted ghee + oil and mix well. Ghee+ oil will be absorbed by the halwa and turns glossy/shiny. Again add 1 tbsp of ghee and mix well. Continue this process at regular intervals. Color of the halwa becomes darker as it cooks. Now it resemble the original Tirunelveli halwa.

Halwa will start to leave the sides and thickens. Do not remove at this point. Again add some ghee+Oil and keep mixing in low to medium flame. Never increase the flame because halwa may turn chewy. Halwa will become non-sticky and slide off the ladle. Keep adding ghee. It will be completely non-sticky, becomes soft & rotates with the ladle. Keep adding ghee + oil. Do not lose patience. At one stage, it will stop taking ghee and starts to ooze out the ghee+ oil in the sides first. It happens only during the last 5 minutes. Keep mixing. Now you can find ghee oozing out all over the halwa. Collect the ghee that oozes out from the halwa in a bowl. Slide the kadai slightly and take out the ghee. Flame should be low. I collected more than 3/4 of the ghee+oil I added in the halwa. You can use this ghee for making other sweets or in your regular cooking. It won’t smell or taste sweetish. After collecting the ghee, transfer the halwa to a big bowl and allow it to become warm. Serve it hot or warm as you wish. The entire process took one hour for me.

This halwa will release the ghee every time you reheat it.So you can reheat the halwa in microwave for 1 minute or keep it inside idli steamer till it gets heated. Remove the ghee from the halwa and serve hot. Don’t worry, the taste of this halwa will never be changed even after removing the ghee. You can store this halwa in an airtight box and keep it for more than a week and enjoy. No need to refrigerate too. This halwa will be coated with frozen ghee after its cooled down. It tastes mildly chewy just like original Tirunelveli halwa. If you wish, reheat and serve every time or enjoy as it is !!

Note

If you want to follow the traditional method, wash and soak 1 cup of samba wheat for 5 hours. Grind in a mixie jar adding water and grind in batches. Strain and extract the milk. Let the milk ferment over night. The next day, remove the white layer that is formed on top of the milk. Make halwa as mentioned above.

The sugar quantity I’ve mentioned gives the required sweetness to the halwa. It won’t taste too sweet as we are adding more ghee. If you like milk sweetness, add 2 cups of sugar.

If you are calorie conscious, you can use ghee & oil in equal quantity OR you can use ghee alone to make super rich halwa. But in halwa kadai, they do use some oil. But never use kadalai ennai/ groundnut oil. It will spoil the flavor of halwa.

You may not need to use all the ghee+ oil I’ve mentioned here.Sometimes, it may take lesser too.When the halwa starts to ooze out the ghee, stop adding it.

Do not remove the halwa until ghee starts to come out.

Do not mix in high flame at the end, halwa may become more chewy.

Try this simplified version of Tirunelveli halwa and do share your feedback with me

hi chitra it looks just like santhi sweets halwa.my favourite.i love it.i dont know what and all i am going to try for this deepavali!!this tempts me a lot.my parents and my inlaws r also from nellai.when i was a child my summer vacation was also in nellai and kallidaikurichi.whenever my uncles comes to chennai i ll be eagerly waiting for this halwa.thanks for the recipe.